Former CG Reacts To Handoff

Six years after the invasion, US troops have pulled out of Iraq’s towns and cities.  Iraq declared Tuesday a national holiday, “National Sovereignty Day.“ 

Roughly 130,000 US troops will remain in Iraq.  All US forces are expected to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

Former Fort Benning Commanding General Major Michael Barbero is preparing to take over for General David Petraeus. He will oversee the Iraqi transition.

We talked to General Barbero before he stepped down from his command at Fort Benning last week. He says this withdraw is an important step for the Iraqi forces to move forward, “In Iraq when I was there we were doing a lot of the fighting, well if this is the year of the transition we need to have leaders that understand how to enable their Iraqi brothers to do the fighting and how we can enable them with additional assets.”

General Barbero will leave for Iraq in roughly three weeks.